One of the major points for this season is that Penny still has feelings for Leonard. The writers actually know how to handle this, so it's both interesting and funny, unlike when she and Leonard were together. "The Cohabitation Formulation" takes another step forward towards them getting back together, with Penny crying over Leonard and Priya while Sheldon and Amy provide the laughs.
Unfortunately, the other characters are handled badly. Raj is featured a lot in the episode, but instead of doing anything meaningful, he says no to everything Leonard and Priya and tries to control the situation. It is Raj, however, who is too chicken to do anything, so he doesn't prevent anything. In the end, Raj just looks like a fool.
Howard is possibly a more problematic character than Raj. He's a giant loser in the episode, moving in with Bernadette and then expecting her to do everything for him--shopping, washing, driving him places, and the rest of the home stuff--and it's more irritating than funny. But it's because Howard's mother provides everything for him and Howard has depended on her forever that he's like this. Basically, Howard is a big child, and who wants that? Can we fault him for being so insulated? It'd be one thing to dismiss him as a bad person, but we can't do that here because his mother's craziness is, in part, passed down to him.
Score: 8.0/10
Thursday, February 17, 2011
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